Rosneft to defend its assets in Ukraine — Sechin

TOKYO, March 19. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s oil company Rosneft will defend its assets in the Ukrainian territory, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin said at a plenary meeting of the sixth Russian-Japanese Investment Forum that opened in Tokyo on Wednesday.

“Our task is to defend our assets in Ukraine,” Sechin stressed. “The same applies to the Lisichansk oil refinery.” The Rosneft head noted that he paid “close attention to this project.” “Everything is all right so far, we are modernizing the plant,” he said. Sechin also expressed hope that “the crisis will not last for such a long time to impede the project implementation.”

Sechin expressed the view that “businessmen should try to take advantage in every situation.” “The Rosneft stock value decreased as a result of the markets’ volatility,” he said. “We bought the company shares at once and hope that it’s a very good investment - we invite our Japanese partners to do the same.” Continuing the Ukrainian topic, Sechin stressed that his company “is looking at the situation rather calmly, as it cannot last long."